Old flame

It was one of those tender moments. After the demands of the Harecastle tunnel (nearly 3000 yards) and the first six locks down "Heartbreak Hill" we found a place to pull in for a sandwich. I squeezed by my best beloved in the kitchen and, in doing so, dropped a gentle kiss on the top of her head. She leaned back a little (in appreciation of the gesture is my guess), forgetting that the kettle was heating on the gas hob just behind her. Seconds later there was a yell: "Is something burning?" Affirmative. That nice fleecy, jumper thing from Milletts was past repair, and had also deposited melted poly-something on the tee-shirt underneath.

She herself acquired a sore finger from trying to feel what was going on before we had extinguished it. Well, well. This old flame doesn't normally take his job description quite so literally.

Apart from the conflagration, this sunshine-and-showers day worked out rather well. We were third in the queue to enter the tunnel,

but they promoted us to the head for some reason, so we got a good lead as we went on to the locks. Later on we encountered a family out for a walk, so Romy, Xavier and Elias came on board with their mum to go down one of the locks.

Further on again we found this couple painting one of the mile markers – first time I've encountered anyone doing this.

There are 26 locks to this flight. Some of the paddles are very resistant but for the most part we got through them well.

The wind was troublesome at times, but we've moored tonight at Rode Heath, looking out across the valley.

Thought I'd finish up with  couple of pics of Elissa, Sam and Theo enjoying the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust centre at Wolseley Bridge, while they were with us at the beginning of the month.